"My People Betrayed Itself Amerongen Outburst An account of an interview which a Dutch journalist, Petermayer, had with the ex-Kaiser in the grounds of Amerongen Castle, last autumn, recently appeared in "Vorwadrts." The paper observes that it feels itself bound to publish the ex-Kaiser's utterances on account of the enormous "scandal" which they will evoke abroad. William LI. began by asking Petermayer, whose father was a German born in Lippe-Detmold, about his German connexions, and added that he had been in Lippe in 1888 in the early days of his reign.
"A month later," he added, visited as Kaiser and King of the German Empire (sic) my unforgettable friend Franz Josef in Vienna. It was a very different world in those days. en you were a baby I came to Rome. Who could then imagine that one's friend would prove to be the most treacherous enemy in the world. True, I was often warned, and! it was not without intention that I showed my fleet in Kiel to the Italian Victor Emmanuel in July, 1913."
General von Gontard, the Court Marshal, who was in attendance, here intervened with a trivial remark intended to warn the ex-Kaiser against the indiscretion of discussing politics with a journalist. The Kaiser took the hint, and began to talk of ancient German literature and the figures of the Nibelungen Saga. "How strong and sound," he said, "must the people have been which could produce such heroes. All the more terrible will its punishment when such a vigorous race denies itself, that is, its national pride."
Emparrassinc Mentor.
Von Gontard again became uneasy, and interposed with a question whether an umbrella should not be fetched, as the interview took place in a garden and rain was beginning to fall. The ex-Kaiser waved him away with an ironical glance, and von Gontard, after a moment's nervous hesitation, disappeared. Having got rid of his mentor the ex-Kaiser could and did speak more freely.
In reply to Petermayer's question how he conceived that any people could sink so low as the German people, the ex-Kaiser, throwing away his cigarette, replied':
My people betrayed itself, its God, and me during the war. "That was the work of the Social-Demoerats. They are guilty in the first place. Every German soldier who
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.